In this section

Public Housing in Limehouse Hole

Providence House, Emmett Street (demolished)

Providence House, a development of flats by Poplar
Borough Council, stood on the now empty site, flanked
by Emmett Street to the west, Bowley Street to the
north, and Westferry Road to the east (Plate 126b). The
Providence Cottages (Emmett Street) Area had been
represented to the LCC by the Borough's Medical Officer
of Health in 1919 as unhealthy and needing clearance, (fn. 1)
but in November 1929 the Borough decided to take
action itself. (fn. 2) A clearance area covering 11 houses (Nos
1–8 Providence Cottages, and Nos 25–29, odd, Emmett
Street) was confirmed in December 1931, (fn. 3) and involved
the rehousing of 70 people. (fn. 4) In addition, some adjoining
properties were compulsorily purchased. (fn. 5)

Plans for the site of 5,300 square yards were drawn up
by the Borough Engineer and Surveyor, Harley Heckford,
during 1932. The site cost £9,270 and the expenditure
on construction, which was carried out by direct labour,
was £43,122. The development provided 78 two— and
three-bedroom flats, at a density of 71 dwellings to the
acre, to rehouse people displaced by other Borough
Council slum-clearance schemes. (fn. 6)

Dramatic use of what could have proved an awkward
site was made by building the main five-storey block on
a V-shaped ground-plan, with its apex set back at the
corner of Bowley Street and Westferry Road (to allow
the widening of the latter). To the rear, and set back
from Emmett Street, was a smaller two-storey block
containing eight flats. (fn. 7) A triangular courtyard was thus
formed within the two blocks. The V-shape of the larger
block was in part designed to allow the maximum amount
of sun into the courtyard-sides of this block, which were
angled to face south and west as far as possible. Described
by the Municipal Journal as 'a Continental type block of
flats', (fn. 8) the exterior of the block was strikingly Modern,
with an almost unbroken series of concrete balconies
wrapping around the building. The balconies were decorated at intervals by a jazzy motif consisting of four
incised horizontals and two relief verticals. The sunshine
streaming into the backs of the flats must have been
offset by the permanent deep shadow cast on the front
windows by the overhanging balconies, particularly ironic
in view of the local authorities' constant argument that
slum properties were unfit because they lacked natural
light. The main brick staircase tower in the centre of the
set-back corner provided a dramatic vertical feature.
Though the roofs were hipped, the pitch was slight, and
they were scarcely visible from street level; in any case
they were in part masked by flat-topped parapets. The
least Modern feature was the wooden-framed sash
windows with their Georgian-style glazing-bars. (fn. 9)

The two flats in the smaller block damaged during the
Second World War were rebuilt to the original plan in
1949. (fn. 10) Providence House was demolished by Tower
Hamlets Borough Council in 1981. (fn. 11)

The St Vincent Estate

The St Vincent Estate, at the northern end of Westferry
Road and on its west side, comprised Bahama, Cayman,
Garford, Grenada, Jamaica, Nevis, St Christopher, St
Lucia, St Vincent, Trinidad, and Windward Houses
(Plate 128a). The estate was built by the LCC and was
begun before the Second World War, although it was
mainly completed after 1945. The site was largely created
by the Phoebe Street Clearance Scheme, which, like the
estate itself, straddled the boundary between the former
Metropolitan Boroughs of Poplar and Stepney.

However, the southernmost block, Garford House, was
built independently of the Phoebe Street scheme and
pre-dates the formation of the St Vincent Estate. The
island site for this block, an area of about 1.25 acres,
bounded by Garford, Bridge, Bowley, and Emmett
Streets, was acquired by the LCC in 1936, the cost of
purchase and clearance being estimated at £15,000.
Garford House was built as a standard five-storey, redbrick neo-Georgian block of 67 flats of the LCC's 1934
(3 and 4) type, with a hipped roof covered in red clay
tiles (see page 33). (fn. 12) The block was built in two phases:
1936–7 (estimated cost, £12,900) and 1938–9 (estimated
cost, £23,700). For both phases the foundations were
constructed by Simplex Concrete Piles Ltd, but the
superstructure for the first phase was by H. C. Horswill
Ltd of Forest Gate and for the second by W. H. Gaze &
Sons of Kingston-upon-Thames. (fn. 13)

The question of the clearance of the Phoebe Street
area was raised with the LCC by Poplar Borough Council
in 1933, but the LCC decided to take no action and
invited the Borough Council to deal with the worst of
the properties. (fn. 14) When, however, in 1935 the LCC was
also approached by Stepney Borough Council, with the
suggestion that much of South Limehouse, including the
Grenada Street locality, should be cleared, it decided that
the area between the railway on the north and Garford
Street on the south, irrespective of borough boundaries,
might appropriately be dealt with by the LCC. (fn. 15)

The Phoebe Street Areas, Poplar and Stepney, were
officially represented in May 1936. Because of the scattered nature of the properties involved, no fewer than 12
separate clearance areas were needed, and these were
officially declared by the LCC on 9 February 1937, under
the 1936 Housing Act. The main area ran from Garford
Street in the south to Limehouse Causeway in the north.
Most of the other areas were in Stepney, and reached as
far westwards as Church Row, and as far north as Grenada
and Nutley Streets. The houses involved were mainly of
the two-storey, terraced kind, many with basements 'of
a bad type'. (fn. 16) The Orders for these areas were duly
confirmed in April 1938, with only slight modifications. (fn. 17)

A detailed development scheme was agreed in November 1938. It provided for six five-storey blocks of 1934
(1 and 2) types comprising 336 dwellings for about 1,614
people. (fn. 18) Redevelopment involved some rearrangement
of the existing street pattern, with a few thoroughfares
wholly closed — including New Alley (off Three Colt
Street, Limehouse), and Park Place — and others partly
closed, such as Lance, Phoebe, and Park Streets, and
Halker Place. (fn. 19) The opportunity was also taken to widen,
or otherwise improve, streets in the area. (fn. 20) Public houses
in the vicinity, such as the Warrior and the Steam Packet,
were rebuilt, while others were relocated. (fn. 21)

Construction began in 1939 with the two blocks to the
north of Limehouse Causeway, Trinidad and Grenada
Houses; (fn. 22) although the foundations were completed,
the onset of war meant that the construction of the
superstructures could not begin. (fn. 23) In 1944 the Council
decided to add about an acre to the Phoebe Street site
by declaring a further clearance area comprising properties on the east side of Three Colt and Emmett Streets,
between Milligan Street (formerly Park Street) and
Garford Street. (fn. 24)

In the autumn of 1945 the Council began further
demolition in the Phoebe Street Clearance Areas. (fn. 25) The
LCC decided that on housing schemes where work had
been suspended because of the war it would, wherever
possible, try to negotiate with the original contractors to
complete outstanding work. In November 1945, therefore,
a new tender from Simms, Sons & Cooke to erect the
superstructures of Trinidad and Grenada Houses was
accepted. They were still to be five-storey blocks of the
1934 (1) type, but with minor internal improvements (see
page 33). Nevertheless, such was the rise in building
costs that the new tender was almost twice as much as
the 1939 one — £30,436 7s 11d (plus a provisional sum
of £1,578) for the superstructure of one block and, as
before, the rest of the work to be completed on the same
terms. (fn. 26) Unfortunately, the foundations of these blocks
had suffered bomb-damage (although the cost of reinstatement was recoverable from the War Damage Commission)
and Simplex Concrete Piles of Kensington had to instal
new pile-foundations for Grenada House. (fn. 27) Trinidad
and Grenada Houses were completed during 1948, and
contained 38 and 51 flats respectively. (fn. 28) Both are standard
five-storey neo-Georgian blocks in yellow flint brick, with
hipped roofs covered in red pantiles. Among the few
touches of individuality are the two canted bays on the
Gill Street elevation of Trinidad House.

Meanwhile, the scheme as a whole had been slightly
revised because part of the site was affected by proposals
in the County of London Plan of 1943 for the B-ring
road. This meant some reduction in the size of the
housing site which — after the reservation of 1.9 acres for
a school and for the reinstatement of two public houses —
was about 5.4 acres. In addition to the two blocks begun
before the war, six blocks of 1934 (1) type, with similar
minor post-war improvements, were also proposed. (fn. 29) It
was decided that this new development should be called
the St Vincent Estate, and the blocks were all assigned
the names of islands in the West Indies, while Garford
House was incorporated into the new estate. (fn. 30)

In March 1947 the lowest tender, again from Simplex
Concrete Piles, of £20,691 8s 6d for the pile-and-beam
foundations for these further blocks was accepted. (fn. 31) By
the time that the Council came to consider the erection
of the superstructures in January 1949, it had been
decided that seven additional flats could be provided by
substituting heated for unheated drying rooms in the
blocks. Rather than following the normal tendering
process the Council accepted an offer by W. J. Simms,
Sons & Cooke to construct the superstructures of the six
remaining blocks at an estimated cost of £246,590 (£564
a room). (fn. 32) All were constructed in 1949–50, and they
provided 156 flats. (fn. 33) St Vincent, Jamaica, Windward,
Cayman, St Christopher and St Lucia Houses were all
standard neo-Georgian blocks, but were only four storeys
high, in red brick, with red clay-tile, hipped roofs,
and metal-framed casement windows. Nevis House and
Bahama House were constructed in 1955–7 by J. M.
Hill & Sons of Wembley, at an estimated cost of
£94,460. (fn. 34) Bahama House was a five-storey, flat-roofed
block of 25 flats, in red brick and buff flint brick. Nevis
House was very similar, but had only three storeys and
contained just nine flats.

The construction of the Limehouse Link road, work
on which began in November 1989, (fn. 35) had a drastic effect
on the St Vincent Estate. Garford and Windward Houses
were demolished in 1990 and several other blocks were
emptied during its construction. During the first quarter
of 1992 the seven blocks south of Limehouse Causeway
(Bahama, Cayman, Jamaica, Nevis, St Christopher, St
Lucia and St Vincent Houses), vacated for the construction of the Limehouse Link, were demolished. (fn. 36)